ESTERHAZY — The Little Miners Community Daycare in Esterhazy is getting a space ready at the Esterhazy High School and has hit a bit of a stumbling block in the process. Part of their plans include building a fence that would require council approval due to the height.
“They had approached us two weeks ago asking for the OK from council to erect a six-foot fence in the front of the high school for their play area for the daycare, and we sent it back,” Mayor Grant Forster said. “Basically, the municipal code is one metre in the front of properties.”
Marissa Porter, chair of the Little Miners board, was in attendance during the Oct. 9 meeting of council, explaining the need for a taller fence.
“She came last night with a really good presentation for us, outlining everything that they’ve been through, why they need to have the fence higher than three feet,” Forster said.
“We listened to her presentation, and then afterwards, we discussed it and council was unanimous in agreeing to allow them to begin the process to erect a five-foot fence.”
While the town gave the project their blessing, the daycare will now need to gain approval for the variance from municipal planning.
“We did our part locally to give them the okay to erect the fence, but in the end, it still has to go through probably another three or four months of government stuff before they’ll get the okay to go ahead and do it,” said Mayor Forster. “We’re not anticipating that they’re going to have any issues getting approval, but they want to get up and running as quick as they can and basically, they’re going to have this three to four-month wait before they can get permission to erect that fence.”
New dishwasher might have to wait
A proposal for a new dishwasher at the S.N. Boreen Community Centre was put on hold for the time being. Instead, Recreation Director Michelle Fuhr was asked to find out how long the current machine would last.
“We asked her to have someone actually look at the existing dishwasher and give an idea of how much longer it’s going to last,” Mayor Forster explained. “Basically, we’re 18 months out from having the new water plant up and running, so we don’t really want to go and buy a new dishwasher.”
Forster says a new dishwasher is needed, but the overriding thought is to wait until after the new water treatment plant comes online before investing between $12,000 and $15,000 on a new dishwasher.
Flyers liquor license approved
Looking to expand the area where beer can be sold at the area, the Esterhazy Senior Flyers hockey team brought their request to council. Under the initial request, beer sales would be extended throughout the entire west side stands, something that council felt caused a potential issue with minors being present in the same space.
“Minors aren’t allowed to be in the beer garden, so we would end up restricting ourselves on where kids could go, and essentially maybe shortening up some of our seating capacity for younger folks because they weren’t old enough to go in there,” Mayor Forster said. “In the end, we decided to essentially give them half of the stands, which is substantially more than what they had, probably basically doubling it.
“You want to help them out, allow them to make a little bit of more money to cover expenses, but at the same time, you don’t want to hurt your paying public either,” Mayor Forster concluded.
